Joshua Davis is a New York-based artist/designer/graphismo who (among other things) uses generative code to create digital compositions of incredible complexity and individuality.

Tropism is an exhibition which is the collaborative result of Davis and design studio Commonwealth, featuring a series of porcelain vases imprinted with unique graphic elements.

Davis’ element of the works involved the creation of drawn elements based on images of dissections from a 1908 book called “Types of Floral Mechanics”, which were fed into a generative algorithm, creating highly intricate digital illustrations, some of which were used for hi-res digital inkjet prints, and others printed onto transfers which were applied to the vases during the firing process.

The vases were created by Commonwealth using Maya (a 3D modelling program) and a stereolithographic 3D print of the object was created, in order to derive a mould for slip-casting.

The resulting objects are a collision of technology and organic form, reminiscant of grafted plants and fractal divisions. The sheer materiality of the porcelain and the soft, nature-derived colour scheme of Davis’ illustration makes the works immediately inviting, defying the usual cold preconception of digitally-derived objects.

Interestingly, Davis’ use of colour is actually derived from nature. In an interview on the Apple – Pro website, Davis states,

“I take a lot of digital photographs just to extract color. I go to an arboretum here on Long Island at different points in the year and take pictures of the orchid show or the Christmas poinsettias. Nature does a pretty good job of blending. You’ll get a flower that starts with green, goes up to yellow, and blooms red. So already I’ve got a red, a yellow, and a green that all complement each other…

I take that image and run it through this program I’ve created, and say, ”Okay, extract the top 16 colors.” So now I have a range of colors extracted out of the image that I blended. The most complex color set I’ve done was 74 colors, and the average is 32.”

I find this idea of ‘digital materiality’ really compelling, especially in the forms of object design and wearables. Commonwealth describe themselves as “harnessing a new fluidity applicable to both the brutality of Architecture and the minutia of the graphic arts” as a point of departure for their design firm. This philosophy reminds me of one of my favourite projects by Dutch wunderkind Dinie Besems.

Benjamin Forster is an amazing local artist whose work completely enraptures me. He is a graduate of the ANU School of Art and still resides in Canberra.

Among his drawing explorations he has investigated computer programming and created a java program which enables his computer to create drawings based in his own pencilings. My personal favourite is the artist book La Lecon D’Amour Dans Un Parc within which he explored a personal narrative through illustrations over the pages of an old book. Apart from being technically and visually exquisite, this work really speaks to me – I love the idea of reclaiming these ‘lost’ stories or objects, these earthly, physical experiences. Like opening an old book or touching antique lace. I feel like Benjamin’s work reminds us of our own physicality somehow. *sigh* and here I am in cyberspace. I might go and draw on some walls. 🙂